Chapter Text
Aloy hit the ground, hard, into a roll. By the time she came up to one knee her bow was already drawn, trained on her enemy. He was large, relied on his formidable strength, and heavily armored from the neck down. But she had better stamina, and she was beginning to wear him down. She ducked under his hammer swing and came up behind him, spinning to land a sharp strike with the arm of her bow to the back of his head. He staggered forward with a surprised yell, nearly losing his balance.
Aloy didn’t let up. She pressed the attack, firing an arrow that rang against his armor in the middle of his back. It staggered him further, but didn't pierce through. He was several paces away now, and Aloy closed the distance at a run. At full speed she leaped, driving her knee into her opponents back and sending him finally to the ground.
He landed with a thud, hammer knocked from his hand, and Aloy remained where she was, knee digging into his back and knocked arrow trained on his neck.
“Alright, alright, I yield!” Erend’s voice was muffled by the dusty ground he was currently pressed into. “Remind me why I agreed to this again? Figures you’d find some way to get me banged up in the few days I’m visiting.”
Aloy rose, returning the dulled practice arrow to it's quiver and her bow to her back. “You’re the one who said we needed practice. You forget that while you sit here reading through files, safe in the base, I’m out in the wilds. Staring down an angry thunderjaw is the best practice there is. Anyway, I wouldn't want to send you back to the claim without a few… souvenirs.” Aloy smirked as she saw the mark she’d left on the back of his head beginning to darken.
“I’ll let you stare down machines for the both of us,” Erend said with a grunt as he got to his feet and dusted himself off. “When it comes to sparring partners I think I like Zo better. At least she had a healing salve for the bruises she gave me. And there were fewer of them”
“You could always have visited Kotallo in the Grove,” Aloy teased, earning a wince from her friend.
“Yeah very funny. I swear the last time I sparred with him I was aching for a month or more--” He was cut off by a shout from above.
“Aloy!” Beta was waving her arms from the top of the cliff overlooking the beaten-down patch of earth they were using as a sparring field. She stood on the outcrop that held one of the doors into the base, which had been uncomfortably quiet since everyone had gone to spread the word about Nemesis. Aloy loved her sister, but neither of them were good conversationalists, and Aloy missed the background chatter of the rest of the team.
“I should go see what she wants,” Aloy told Erend apologetically.
“Yeah yeah,” he waved her off, “I’m good. My pride was hurt more than anything else, nothing a little ale can’t fix.”
With an eye roll shot in his direction Aloy made for the cliff. With a familiar flick of her wrist Aloy was pulled upward by her grapple. In a practiced, graceful motion she launched herself skyward, landing lightly on the stone beside Beta.
“That’s…always impressive,” her sister muttered as she turned to lead Aloy inside. From the sweat on her palms and the way her eyes darted about, Beta was more than a little nervous.
As she followed, Aloy sighed. “Get to the point, then. What’s wrong?”
Beta fidgeted with her hands as she walked, thinking. Aloy let her put her thoughts together. They may both be clones of Elizabet, but the Sobeck sisters were quite different from each other. By now Aloy knew that Beta’s mind needed a little extra time to sort her thoughts into a form others could understand, and patience was the least she could give her sister.
After a long pause, as they walked in out of the sun and piercing wind and followed the curved corridor into the base, Beta spoke.
“I was sure it was a mistake at first. I mean the equipment here is hundreds of years old after all, but Gaia and I looked into it and it's too consistent.”
“Beta, what are you talking about?” Aloy asked, fingers brushing against Betas' shoulder. Beta paused, swallowed, then kept walking, faster now.
“I’ll show you,” she said by way of explanation.
Aloys brows furrowed as she watched Beta swipe a hand through her hair. She was always more anxious than the others, but nowadays it took a real threat to get her this worked up.
Aloy found her own nerves were beginning to rise in response, and pushed down her unease. She refused to react until she knew exactly what she had to be worried about.
The two passed through the empty common area, a lump forming in Aloy’s throat as they passed Varl’s seat at the bar. She said nothing, following silently as they started up the steps into the command room.
Gaia floated in the center of the dome, like always. Currently displayed all around her was a patch of wilderness to the west, a snowy valley dotted with pine and fir trees. It faded out as they entered, returning to its neutral blue-black.
Beta waved her hand and a hologram appeared, a topographical map of somewhere Aloy couldn’t immediately place, until she saw the symbol in the center. A cauldron on the coast to the south, and the surrounding country.
“Gaia, could you explain it?” Beta asked, wringing her hands and watching the hologram intensely.
“Very well,” the AI obliged in her soft, comforting voice. “Pictured is Cauldron CHI, positioned north of the island that housed the Zenith base, and southeast of the settlement of Thornmarsh. Beta and myself have been monitoring it for several days, and have registered a steady increase in power reading coming from the facility. Because without Hephaestus I am unable to access the Cauldron network without a direct connection, I am unable to detect the cause of this increase.
“Due to the fact that no other AI’s are known in this region, and no one outside our focus network knows how to interface with or even access the Cauldrons, Beta and I have come to the hypothesis that the power surge must be a result of Hephaestus's involvement.”
“That’s not possible,” Aloy mused. “Hephaestus was destroyed when Gerard shut down the printing matrix for the Zenith base. Are you sure Sylens isn’t tinkering around in there?”
“Negative,” Gaia assured her. “Sylens is not at that location. I have been monitoring his Focus like you requested and have noticed no abnormal activity.”
Beta stepped forward. “The Cauldron and the island are so close, and the Zeniths built their base on top of an ancient facility. We think the facility under the Zenith base extends underground into the surrounding wilderness, and might have become connected to the Cauldron by mistake. Hephaestus may have been able to escape back to the cauldron network that way. I know it's a long shot but it has to be investigated.
“Aloy, that Cauldron is in the best shape of any in the region, it's highly unlikely it’s a malfunction. That means it's either Hephaestus, or something new that we don’t know about. Either of those is bad, and if the power output continues to increase, it will affect the Cauldron’s core. Best case scenario it's fried and stops making machines, worst case it explodes and kills everything in a five mile radius. It would destroy the Zenith base and any hope we had of getting Hephaestus back, or accessing the Odyssey rocket.”
“So I have to check it out.” Aloy sighed. Something was twisting in her gut, some unease or dread, that she couldn’t place. She studied the map, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand, and set her jaw. “Fine. I’ll see what I can do.”
Frustration rose in Aloy even as Beta began thanking her. She had hoped that when Erend left for the Claim she could return to the Burning Shores, help the Quen reunite with Alva and the others of their tribe. And see Seyka.
They had parted so quickly, Aloy rushing back to the base to help Kotallo with some urgent problem with the Tenakth, and Seyka bringing the news of the rest of the fleet to Fleet’s End. Yet every time she tried to fall asleep, or got lost in thought, or even closed her eyes Aloy could still feel the softness of her lips and the warmth of her hand on her face, taste the salt-touched sweetness of her mouth, smell her ocean scent. It never left her, the memory hovering always at the edge of her thoughts, shadowed by that deep, quiet hunger. Just as she needed food and water and air, Aloy needed more. She needed to taste Seyka again, to get more of her voice, her laugh, her scent. She was worried it was beginning to drive her insane.
But maybe this was a good thing, this new puzzle to solve. She couldn’t indulge those feelings, after all. She had to focus on finding a way to stop Nemesis. And a new crisis to manage would keep her busy enough to get her traitorous mind off of Seyka.
“-careful because we have no idea what you might find, and if it starts to overheat, get out of there and fly away as fast as you can.” Beta was speaking quickly and urgently, and Aloy realized she’d been zoning out.
“I’ll be fine,” she told her sister. “It’s not like ruins haven't collapsed on me before, I know when to get out of there.”
“Just be careful,” Beta said to her back as she left the control room. “I will,” Aloy tossed over her shoulder before the door hissed closed. She stopped in the corridor and exhaled, hoping she hadn’t given away what was going on in her head.
She squared her shoulders and started for the door. No better time than the present. “If I start now I should make it there by sundown,” she muttered to herself. “Thornmarsh is nearby if I need to spend the night. Or I could just camp out in the wilds.”
The door to the common room slid open and Aloy saw Erend sitting nearby, unarmored and nursing a few nasty bruises. “Running off then, are we?” he jabbed. “Scared of a rematch?”
Aloy chuckled. “Just…looking into something, nothing to worry about. I hope. Sorry I can’t see you off.”
“Ah that’s okay,” he shrugged. “I don’t need a farewell party. Just call sometime to check in is all I ask.” He tapped his focus for emphasis.
“I will,” Aloy promised, moving toward the door.
Out in the chill wind, Aloy brought her fingers to her lips and blew a shrill, loud whistle that echoed over the valley. A few moments later, the mechanical whirring and wingbeats announced the arrival of a Waterwing. Duck, as Aloy had picked up from Beta and Alva referring to the creature, settled on the edge of the cliff, clicking its beak. It had paint adorning the metal plating on its head, neck and wings, blue swirls and patterns that matched Aloy’s own war paint in hue.
Aloy ran a hand along the machine's beak and head in greeting, then swung up onto its back. A light kick to the sensory panels on its side and Duck was off, with a great beating of wings.
The now familiar feeling of her stomach dropping and her heart leaping into her throat rushed over Aloy as she welcomed the thrill of flight. She held tight to the metal with hands and knees and watched the ground fall away. The first time she’d flown, after nearly falling off, she’d been so caught up in the freedom and adrenaline of it she hadn’t wanted to ever land. Only the urgency of Regalla’s attack on the Grove had stopped her from soaring for hours.
She steered Duck Southwest and settled into her seat, the initial rush fading. The ground rushed by far below them, herds of machines oblivious to the hunter above their heads. Lucky for them they weren’t Aloy’s target today.
She tangled her legs into the override cables running down Duck’s neck so she could relax her grip, and settled in to wait and watch the scenery go by. She was in for a long flight.